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Daily Corinthian Vol. 118, No. 49
Sister still coping 30 years later BY BRANT SAPPINGTON Kim Phillips wants the world to remember the sister she can never forget. On Oct. 8, 1985, Northeast Mississippi was shocked by the brutal murder of 18-year-old coed Stacie Pannell in a dormitory at Northeast Mississippi Community College. For more than a year investigators would search for clues before zeroing in on her suitemate Stephanie Alexander, who would go on to be convicted of the crime after confessing three separate times – confessions she later recanted. As a community came to grips with the idea of a terrible crime so close to home Pannell’s family mourned the loss of a vibrant, outgoing young woman whose future was cut tragically short. “I want her to be remembered for who she was,” said Pannell’s younger sister, Kim Phillips, today a resident of Alcorn County. “I want people to know how outgoing and how friendly and how loving she was.” A spotlight will shine on the case again this week as the Investigation Discovery cable network airs a new episode of “On the Case with Paula Zahn.” Titled “Evidence of Deception,” the episode follows the twisting path of the case from the discovery of Pannell’s body in her Murphy Hall dorm room through the investigation and conviction and Alex-
Grant puts safety officers in schools BY ZACK STEEN zsteen@dailycorinthian.com
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves announced last week 24 school districts would receive help keeping their campuses secure with grants from the Mississippi Community Oriented Policing (MCOPS) program. The Board of Education approved spending $630,000 to place 63 trained officers in public schools under the new campus safety program. In 2013, the board approved $1,570,000 for 157 officers in 50 school districts. The program provides up to $10,000 to pay for a certified law enforcement officer at a public school. The local community will fund the remaining costs. Reeves proposed MCOPS in response to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 children and six adults dead. Please see GRANT | 3A
ander’s later denials. The show premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. Pannell was the oldest of three children of Judy Pannell and the late Wicki Pannell. Kim was in the middle and younger brother Bradley, 10 years younger than Stacie, was the baby of the family. Phillips, three years younger, adored her big sister. “We did everything together. We danced, we tapped, we were best buds,” she said. “We even dressed the same.” Nearly 30 years after the loss she still struggles to make sense of it all. “She was just such a special, special person and I can’t understand why she, of all people, had to leave earth at such a young age,” she said. In 1985 her sister was a freshman at Northeast on a band scholarship, a proud member of the college band’s drill team. She had chosen the school from numerous other scholarship offers in order to stay close to her family in nearby Ripley. Her father had been diagnosed with a brain tumor three years earlier that would later claim the proud Vietnam veteran’s life. “That was the main reason Stacie chose Northeast. She got scholarships from all around but she wanted to be close to Daddy,” recalled Phillips. The family never imagined she would be in danger so close to home. “We never thought anything like this would ever happen.
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Show looks at Pannell murder bsappington@dailycorinthian.com
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Sales tax posting robust numbers BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
said Phillips. “It was just unimaginable that she could do this.” The crime scene had been staged to look like a sexual assault with a cut window screen and other evidence initially pointing investigators away from the suspect living in the
The holiday shopping period delivered some robust tax numbers for the city. Both sales tax and tourism tax had near-record months for the mid-February deposits, which reflect sales activity in local businesses during the month of December. “The last time we saw these numbers was pre-recession,” City Clerk Vickie Roach said of the sales tax result. The city’s share of sales tax for the latest month is $585,937.28, an increase of about $20,000, or 3.6 percent, in year-to-year comparisons. It is the third consecutive monthly increase as the year-to-date total goes to $1.847 million, a 4.7 percent increase from the same point in the prior fiscal year. The 2 percent tourism tax on prepared food and lodging, which has been wildly up and down in the first five months of the fiscal year, had its secondbest month to date, generating $108,653.19, an increase of about $16,000, or 17 percent, from a year earlier. The tax has collected $451,950.25 for the
Please see PANNELL | 2A
Please see TAX | 2A
Staff photo by Brant Sappington
Kim Phillips holds a photo of her late sister, Stacie Pannell. The investigation into Pannell’s murder in her dorm room at Northeast Mississippi Community College in 1985 will be profiled in a new episode of “On the Case with Paula Zahn” on the Investigation Discovery network this weekend. It happens in the big cities. It happens to other people,” she said. For 18 months the family would wonder what had happened before the trail led investigators to Alexander. “I couldn’t sleep because I was so afraid whoever it was would come after me too. I had to sleep with my lights on,”
Crossroads Chili Cook-off returns this year BY ZACK STEEN zsteen@dailycorinthian.com
Local and professional chili cooks will “light their fires” in Corinth when the Crossroads Chili Cook-Off returns in April. The seventh annual event is scheduled for Saturday, April 5 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
at the Corinth Depot in the C.A.R.E. Garden green space on Fillmore Street in downtown Corinth. For the second year, all money raised by the Chili Cook-Off will go to the Corinth-Alcorn County Animal Shelter. The Cook-Off will host a
sanctioned International Chili Society (ICS) competition, which promises to draw more than 30 chili-cooking teams from around the region. The ICS is a non-profit organization that sanctions chili cookoffs around the world for the benefit of charities and other
non-profit organizations. “At our event, the winners in each category will be named Mississippi State Champion,” said Steve Knight, chili cookoff chairperson. “If they win in Corinth, they will get a ticket Please see CHILI | 2A
4-H’s soup luncheon fueling scholarships BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
Soup is on. It will be today at the Mississippi State Extension Service in effort to fund scholarships for 4-H high school seniors. The 4-H Advisory Council has spoons ready to fill orders during the 12th Annual Jesse Clausel Memorial 4-H Scholarship Soup Luncheon. A choice of vegetable beef soup, potato soup or chili is available for $6. Also included are
crackers, drink and dessert at the extension office behind Crossroads Arena. Named in memory of Clausel, the luncheon uses proceeds to help graduating high school seniors receive a college education. “We have a number of seniors completing applications for scholarships this year,” said advisory council member Sandy Mitchell.
Index Stocks......8A Classified......4B Comics......2B State......5A
Weather...... 7A Obituaries......6A Opinion......4A Sports....10A
Please see SOUP | 3A
Staff photo by Steve Beavers
4-H Advisory Council member Sandy Mitchell (left) and 4-H agent Tammy Parker prepare soup for today’s 12th Annual Jesse Clausel Memorial 4-H Scholarship Soup Luncheon.
On this day in history 150 years ago William Sooy Smith’s column returns to Tennessee, where he boasts of liberating 3,000 slaves and capturing 200 Confederates. In truth, he was chased out of Mississippi by a smaller force and failed to rendezvous in Meridian.
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